


Way Station

by fairyminseok



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Aliens, Alternate Universe - Space, M/M, Messy, Space Pirates, warning for tentacles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-03
Updated: 2017-01-03
Packaged: 2018-09-14 09:49:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9174871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fairyminseok/pseuds/fairyminseok
Summary: Minseok is the prettiest thing Lu Han’s ever stolen from the Fleet, and he doesn't think he wants to give this one back





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is a hot mess but so is Lu han so

The first time Lu Han sees Minseok, he’s standing outside a way station shop on a dusty desert planet, eyebrows furrowed in annoyance and lips turned downward.

He looks lost and irritated, and maybe ridiculously pretty in a form fitting outfit of blues and silvers that looks vaguely familiar, but all Lu Han wants to do is help him. But then Minseok shifts a bit and Lu Han pauses five feet away, eyes on Minseok’s uniform with a sense of wariness, understanding it’s familiarity in the beating light of the desert.

A Fleet Hunter. The officers of the Andromeda Sector, and coincidentally the last people Lu Han ever wishes to see. 

Lu Han doesn’t trust Fleet Hunters, not when they could arrest him at any given moment. One pretty officer is never enough to risk his entire career, and Lu Han is just turning to slink away when a soft voice catches his attention, smooth like honey and boyish with a lilted accent. 

His inner self squeals at the voice, and for once Lu Han dislikes his own rampant promiscuity. 

“Sorry?” He asks in confusion, politely turning back to the Fleet Hunter, who’s suddenly much closer to him than before, eyebrows still furrowed but eyes docile, smile nervous but bright. He’s got red lightning across his face, markings that accentuate the highness of his cheekbones and the pretty shape of his eyes. He’s shorter too, slight in stature but not thin nor weak judging by the way his body seems fit to burst through his uniform. 

Lu Han is smitten. 

“Can you tell me if there’s a hotel at this station?” The Hunter repeats in that same, soft tone, and it only takes on proper look, a quiet assessment of the creature before him, before Lu Han is tossing his career into a black hole. “I’m a bit trapped here for the time being.”

He’s not smitten, this is definitely love at first sight. This man is beautiful. 

“I’m staying there actually,” Lu Han responds brightly, flashing his best friendly grin and bowing slightly. “I can take you there.”

“Thank you so much,” The Hunter speaks in a clipped accent, as though the common tongue is not something he often speaks. “I’m glad.”

“It’s no problem,” Lu Han purrs, and he’s already switched into Lu Han mode, skin humming with excitement as he guides the man towards the broken down metal building they call a “hotel” in these parts. “Do you wanna grab a drink also? It’s not often you meet Fleet Officers this far into pirate territory.”

“It’s not often you meet well dressed humans that aren’t pirates,” The Hunter responds with a kind of sharp laugh that Lu Han attaches to immediately, and he finds himself giggling. 

“I’m adventuring actually,” Lu Han tells him as they steer into the diner of the quiet hotel. “Traveling everywhere I can. But my ship’s engines crashed and I floated here for refueling.”

“My engines have also crashed,” The Hunter says with a knowing smile, though even a glance into those deep, dark eyes doesn’t have Lu Han convinced he’s trusted just like that. He sits across Lu Han at a very human like table, and though he’s humanoid, Lu Han can tell by the markings and the way he carries himself that he’s not. “Minseok, by the way.”

Lu Han raises an eyebrow in surprise. “Part human?” He asks curiously, leaning forward with interest at the way the syllables roll from his tongue. 

“I was raised by a human,” Minseok says with a soft laugh. “But I’m fully Syntheid.”

syntheid

Lu Han nods in casual interest, playing things cool as they order strange sounding drinks, delicacies of the Pylthie people, but inside he’s vibrating, brain in over drive with the need to make this seduction. One can pass up the opportunity to sleep with a Syntheid, and Lu Han never has, but he’s heard things. 

Lu Han flirts the entire night as they chat and drink and get to know each other, even admitting to starting smuggling as a teenager (“I quit though, when I hit adulthood, you shouldn’t get so caught up with bad people at a young age”), and listening to interesting stories of the Fleet Academy. 

He doesn’t get to strip Minseok of his clothes, but they part with a promise to meet up the next night, before they depart in their respective ships home. 

Minseok doesn’t need to know that Lu Han’s ship is his home. 

 

***

 

Minseok's uniform is sleek. Form fitted and made of the strongest material, it feels like the finest silk in Lu Han's fingers, sliding wonderfully past the expanses of Minseok's shoulders to reveal glowing red markings that match the ones on Minseok's cheeks. Lu Han almost doesn't want to toss the shirt to the floor, thumbs pausing to brush along Minseok's access badge with interest. 

Lu Han's always wanted one of those, and the temptation is full, the easiest decision for the old Lu Han to make. But Lu Han actually likes Minseok, wants to keep him around and maybe see him again after this, and stealing his badge won't allow that to happen. 

After all, this is their second meeting -- though this time is in between open mouthed kisses rather than over a drink -- and Lu Han has the Fleet Hunter convinced he's stopped smuggling, convinced that the life of a criminal is long past him. 

He thinks of the stolen cargo on his ship and can't help the soft laughter that spills from his lips at the situation. Minseok looks confused for a moment, moving his hands as though Lu Han is laughing at the sight of him, but Lu Han just shakes his head, mind fuzzy from the thought of what could be underneath the same silky material of Minseok's pants. 

He's heard things about this species but has never had the chance to experience it, and excitement at the prospect has him finally dropping the shirt in his hands to sit on the hotel bed gingerly. Lu Han beckons Minseok forward and Minseok comes, hands on Lu Han's shoulders and voice exclaiming impatience and distaste for Lu Han's still clothed state. 

His hands run along the seams of Lu Han's own silky shirt, made from the finest materials and too expensive for someone like him to afford, but Minseok doesn't need to know where it's come from, where the bitchips that processed the custom design came from. 

He just needs to know that it feels nearly as nice as Lu Han's skin will underneath the cool touch of his fingertips, and Lu Han can't wait, lips quirking up into a grin when Minseok unbuttons the shirt, tossing it aside not nearly as nicely as Lu Han had tossed his. 

Lu Han frowns. 

"That's an expensive shirt," He mutters, distracted by the feel of Minseok's hands sliding across his chest, and his fingertips aren't cool at all, but warm and addictive, gentle presses of skin against skin that have Lu Han shuddering with want. 

"So is mine," Minseok says without skipping a beat, fingers drumming against Lu Han's collarbones momentarily before pausing to take Lu Han in, to consider something. One of his hands drops to the front of Lu Han's pants, trailing across the clasp but not undoing it. "Before we get into this."

"You have many tentacles I'm not afraid of them, your red markings are very pretty, please fuck me," Lu Han says in one breath, a casual spill of all the things that usually make a Syntheid nervous, especially while dealing with a human. 

Minseok blinks, and he looks adorable standing their in just his uniform pants, fingers still pressed gently to Lu Han's collar. "Well then," He says with a sharp laugh, loud in the quiet of the room they're in. "How many?"

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Lu Han says in minute confusion, letting his hands fall on Minseok's hips in preparation. Impatience is threatening to take over his senses, but he waits, head cocked to the side. 

"I mean how many can you take?" Minseok asks, and Lu Han shudders again, lips curling up at the knowledge that maybe Fleet Hunters aren't as straight laced as he thinks. 

"However many you think I can take," Lu Han responds, before pulling Minseok closer to kiss him, lips crashing together roughly with the impatience that has won out now, apparent when Minseok's nails dig into his shoulders. 

Lu Han finds out that night, amongst the kisses and the moans and the nails that scrape down Minseok's back, silky skin against silky skin, that he can take exactly four Syntheid tentacles. 

***

"Can I see you again?" Lu Han asks when the night has ended and morning has swept its way across the way station, starlight bright on the desert sands of the planet they've both stopped on. 

"Perhaps," Minseok says, and there's a twinkle in his large, serious eyes as he greets Lu Han goodbye, sleek uniform slightly wrinkled. "If our travels cross."

Lu Han perhaps falls in love a little after that second meeting, a spark of something he's never felt for any other pretty thing he's ever slept with, be it alien or human or otherwise, and there's a hint of regret as he watches Minseok ascend into his ship to fly away. 

Their lives cross on opposite paths, and Lu Han just hopes the next time they meet it's not with him behind bars and Minseok filing paperwork on the other side for his execution. 

*** 

 

 

 

"Fleet ship approaching in five universal quadrants," A mechanical female voice sounds over the loud speaker of the ship, heeding a warning that has Lu Han flailing around in the console room. He's never been caught before, and he's not about to be caught now. "Permission to engage target?"

"Hold off," He calls to the machine, pushing a hand through his unruly hair as he glances around the room, eyes flicking from one screen to another to monitor his cargo. "Install star locks on each cargo boy and bring up the ship onscreen. How many onboard?"

"One passenger on board," The computer tells him, and Lu Han is met with the serious face of a Fleet Hunter with large eyes and red markings across his nose and cheeks. Lu Han smirks. He recognizes this hunter, an alien species from the Syntheise Galaxy. Except the last time they'd met had been under vastly different circumstances. 

Lu Han never forgets the faces of those he beds, especially those with crisp uniforms and silky tentacles, even if he'd only seen those beautiful eyes in the dark of a dingy hotel room at a way station. 

"Open communication," Lu Han says, feeling risky now he's got an advantage. He may get caught, but he won't be turned in. Not on his watch. 

"Captain Minseok," Lu Han greets with a smile, a kind of quiet flourish in his words, and the nonchalant wave of a hand. Minseok looks surprised to see him, eyebrow shooting up and lips quirking in confusion. "Do you remember me?"

"Lu Han," Minseok responds, removing his hands from the controls to play with the collar of his uniform, voice carrying well even through the stuttering static of their connection. "You're smuggling again." 

He sounds disappointed, saddened even, and Lu Han ignores the guilt that flickers across his thoughts when he remembers the hopefulness in Minseok’s voice from all that time ago, when they’d hoped for their paths to cross once again. 

"To be fair," Lu Han says with a devious grin, ignoring the slight skip in his heart at Minseok's recognition. He'd always wanted to see this particular alien again, to hear the soft voice above him. "I never actually stopped."

"You lied," Minseok's eyes narrow, and Lu Han can't help the heat that runs down his spine at seeing the Captain shift into hunt mode. He should be wary but instead he's just spurred on, 

"Are you gonna shoot me down?" Lu Han teases, leaning forward even though he knows the movement won't translate across the communication channel. "You'd lose the precious cargo I stole."

Lu Han feels the ship shake, and he's almost surprised that Minseok is actually firing. His poor ship is going to need a lot of expensive repairs by the time he gets back to headquarters. 

"Just lower your defenses," Minseok responds, and he doesn't look phased by the power of Lu Han's missiles, though a twitch of his lips shows the very real worry of losing his ship. Lu Han's weaponry is twice that of the Fleet Hunters, stolen black market goods pieced together and reprogrammed to knock out an entire space station if he really wanted to. 

He doesn't, just wants to scare Minseok enough to make a point. If it's just one Captain and a singular ship, he doesn't stand a chance at bringing Lu Han in. 

"You'll have to come on board and catch me," Lu Han singsongs, wicked grin blooming on his lips when Minseok looks momentarily panicked, passiveness disappearing. "I like you too much to kill you."

Minseok grumbles, fingers releasing the trigger button to glance up at Lu Han with a frown. "Don't make my job difficult, Lu Han. I didn’t want us to meet like this.”

"If you don't catch me," Lu Han says, tone briefly serious. "You don't lose anything except a slice of dignity until your next mission deployment. If you do catch me. I lose everything. A few pretty tentacles complaining that their job is hard isn't going to sway me sweetie."

The connection cuts and the screen goes blank without warning. The smirk never leaves Lu Han's face as he waits, leaning back comfortably in his chair, until he hears the sound of someone materializing in the hallway, crackles and bursts signalling Minseok's descent to his ship. 

Lu Han waits a few extra seconds just in case before firing a larger missile and watching with a faint, manic grin as Minseok's ship burns to pieces right before his eyes. 

"You." Minseok sounds angry, and Lu Han nearly weeps for the door of his deck as it melts away to reveal a seething Minseok with a gun, eyes narrowed and mouth slightly open. 

"Welcome aboard," Lu Han says with a wave of his hands and a laugh. "Feel free to stay awhile."

"You destroyed my ship." Minseok says in a far away voice, as if he can't believe Lu Han would do such a thing, gun falling to dangle at his side in his shock. Lu Han hums, setting a course away from the debris. He turns toward Minseok with a gentler smile on his face, though the spark never leaves his eyes. 

"I did," Lu Han sighs happily. Minseok shouldn't be surprised, really. After all it was he who commented on Lu Han's unpredictability, on the crazy look that splits his features when he becomes excited and manic. "I need a companion, and you’re perfect."

"I’m a Fleet Captain," Minseok raises his gun again, but Lu Han is too quick, darting from his chair and at Minseok to take the gun into his own hands. He twirls it in his grip, eyeing the markings on the sides. A Syntheise made gun too, customized to adhere to the too soft skin of the Syntheids. "You will take me, to the nearest base and drop me off."

"I want to go to the Aquarium Cloud," Lu Han says with a tremor in his voice. He's always wanted to go there with someone, and he's suddenly decided today is going to be the day. "After I drop off my cargo and get my pay, of course."

"I am not engaging in illegal activities with you," Minseok snarls, but he makes no attempt to move, still watching the pieces of his ship grow more distant as Lu Han's purrs to life and cruises in the opposite direction. 

"You're not trying very hard," Lu Han says in a pleased voice. He's glad to see Minseok looks well, skin healthy and muscles apparent through the thin material of his Fleet blazer. He remembers the last time they'd seen each other, when Lu Han had convinced Minseok to take one night off his search for a vegabond arms dealer to let Lu Han spend the night with him. 

Minseok hadn't tried very hard to resist Lu Han's wants back then either, had frowned over his job before dragging Lu Han into a vacant room to have his way. He hopes it'll be just as easy this time, with Minseok's guard completely down and nowhere to go but into Lu Han's arms. 

"You're not a bad person Lu Han," Minseok says with a tired sigh. "I don't want to hurt you. But you're misguided and I only forgave you for the smuggling last time because you said you'd quit that life."

"I did quit that life," Lu Han shrugs. "The life I told you about at least. I never said I quit smuggling."

Minseok glares at him, but he seems to have calmed down, resentfulness in his eyes as he sinks into a chair opposite Lu Han's, resigning himself to whatever Lu Han is up to. "I suppose if I try to take over the ship from you you'll tie me up?"

"That's a good plan," Lu Han says with a conspiratorial grin. "I'd rather you tied me up though."

Minseok groans, head in his hands. His Fleet uniform looks perfectly new, ironed and glistening and caging his thighs beautifully. Lu Han wants to tear it from his body and find what's underneath, wants to skitter his teeth up soft skin while the space anemone floats by the viewing window. 

"There's plenty we could do to pass the time," Lu Han tells Minseok, rising from his chair. "Do you want some tea? I seem to remember you liking that."

"I don't want tea," Minseok mumbles, raising his head to look forlornly at the blank screen on the wall that had just before shown his decaying ship. "I want my ship. And my paycheck."

"I can pay you for your work today to cover the losses," Lu Han says, pouring Minseok some tea anyways, adding a few extra sugars for comfort. Minseok will need his strength. "We arrive at my destination in about an hour."

"And then you'll take me home?" Minseok asks, though it's worded more a demand, annoyance verging on the edge of panic in his tone. 

Lu Han grins. "Why would I do that?" He says sweetly, placing a mug of tea beside Minseok and scooting his chair closer until they're sitting directly across from each other, barely an inch apart. "I told you we're going on an adventure."

"I seem to recall you telling me a vibrant story over hotel breakfast about the last time you went on an adventure," Minseok says with a frown. "Didn't you nearly die?"

"Yes," Lu Han replies slowly, before breaking out into a slow, even smile. "But that time I was trying to see if I could fly backwards through a wormhole. Space whales are nothing."

"Space whales are big," Minseok points out, but he sounds defeated, and Lu Han is delighted. 

"Don't worry," He says earnestly, switching the viewing controls back on to show them the curve of a planet in the distance, massive and daunting to Lu Han's tiny smuggling ship. "I'll buy you a new ship on Hador."

"And what will I tell the Fleet when I return home on a Hador ship?" Minseok scoffs. He looks annoyed, but he's picked up his tea to drink, looking resigned and comfortable in Lu Han's ship. 

"That I blew up your ship and you needed a way home?" Lu Han laughs, chewing on a nail in his impatience to arrive at the planet and make his trades. He does want Minseok home eventually, before he runs out of fuel and traps Minseok on his ship to float to the next way station. "It's not exactly a lie."

"You've set this up too well," Minseok mutters in surprise, and Lu Han can see him trying to hide the satisfaction that shimmers across the red markings on his cheeks as he takes a sip of tea. Lu Han wonders if the ones on his arms glow when he's pleased also. That's one fact he can't seem to remember. 

"Not really," Lu Han admits, laughing sheepishly and crossing his legs. "I was going to switch speeds and jet off but then I saw you on screen. Couldn't pass up such a great opportunity."

"And what if I'd taken you in?" Minseok asks incredulously. "You're crazy."

"Like I told you," Lu Han says with another laugh. He'd read Minseok well even after just a few meetings, knows that he can relax now, that the bright eyed alien isn't going anywhere but his quarters. "I could have blown you out of the sky in two seconds."

Minseok doesn't respond, staying silent even when they enter Hador's atmosphere and their descent to the surface starts. He stares at Lu Han though, as if assessing him deeper than he ever had before, and Lu Han can't say he doesn't enjoy the attention. 

The computer whirs back into action the moment they land, relaying the size and danger of the Hador personnel taking Lu Han's cargo. It's a smooth trade, one of magnitude with the amount of bitchips Lu Han receives, and he's laughing his way back onto deck when the Hadorians leave, slumping back into his stolen captain's seat with an offbeat kind of grin. 

"Say Minseok," He says with a giggle, stacking up his chips and mentally counting them into his bulging Space Chip account. "Do you want a space squid?"

"I want a bath," Minseok huffs, though his eyebrow does raise at the amount of money Lu Han's just made. "Do you really make that much with each trade?"

"This is a bit more than usual," Lu Han admits, stacking his chips carefully into little piles to smile at them with glee. "But I usually make a fair amount. More than you do in your pretty uniform chasing criminals like me."

"I want to see," Minseok says, and it's surprising the interest he suddenly has, eyeing Lu Han with understanding now. "How you go about this?"

"You'd make my job much easier," Lu Han tells him, eyes dropping to Minseok's clearance badge, the one essential item he's always difficulty acquiring. "You have access to nearly every Fleet Cargo hold in this section of Andromeda."

 

"I'm not helping you," Minseok snaps, looking offended by Lu Han's suggestion, hand over his badge like he's about to be robbed, which he probably is. "I just want to ... come along."

"Then I guess we'll have to go on another adventure after the Aquatics," Lu Han says with glee, dropping his chips to chart a course into autopilot. It'll take a few days to reach the Aquarium Cloud, but Lu Han knows just the place to stop for some juicy cargo. "Kal-Haeth 54 isn't far from here and their facilities are jam packed with nutrients."

"Those facilities are run by the Fleet," Minseok doesn't look pleased by the idea, twitching in his sparkly uniform, but Lu Han is immersed already in his planning, pulling up a map of the reachable areas of the large, protected compound. 

"The Fleet uses these nutrients for weapon tests," Lu Han tells him with a snort. "They would be much better used in the hands of the Fen, who's planet is depleted of these nutrients, the very life force they need to survive. It'll be a good trade, plus I'll get paid hefty by my employer in that area."

"If we used your card we could access more," Lu Han reminds Minseok, pointing to the areas of the map shaded an ugly green, a colour he's sure must look different to Minseok's hyperfocused eyes. 

Minseok hesitates. "I'll think about it," He says with a slow kind of sigh. "I'm counting this as an undercover mission and you are to tell no one that you knew of my true identity."

"Yes Captain." Lu Han purrs, and he reaches out a brave hand to touch Minseok's arms, surprised when Minseok doesn't pull back. 

"We'll be there in no time."

 

*** 

"No time" turns out to be never. 

On their second day of travel, after Minseok had already contacted Fleet Headquarters to tell them he wouldn't be returning soon as he'd discovered an interesting lead, they hit an asteroid. 

The collision is deafening, waking them both up from a peaceful slumber in Lu Han's bunk, legs tangled together and Lu Han's gleeful smile pressed against Minseok's chest. He's succeeded, he thinks, blinking with sleep, mind not having quite caught up to what had woken them, in getting the man of his dreams back into his life and on his ship. 

"What the fuck was that?" Minseok asks, leaping to his feet and pulling on his uniform in a span of time short enough to have Lu Han's eyebrows rising towards the ceiling. Impressive.

"What?" Lu Han asks dumbly, before realizing that his body is sliding slightly towards the wall. The ship has tilted. "Did we hit something."

"I dunno," Minseok says in exasperation, dragging himself out Lu Han's door and down the hallway with Lu Han in tow, struggling against the wait of even an inch of movement the ship makes in not being level. The gravity balance should keep them from falling too much, but it's still a lot of work, like walking into an incredibly strong wind. "it's your ship."

"The engines have gone out," Lu Han says weakly as he enters the deck, foregoing the Captain's seat to slide into a mechanical booth. "We. Have hit an asteroid."

"Are we stuck?"

"No, we're not stuck," Lu Han says in relief as he traces the coordinates of the rock they'd hit. It's massive in size, and he curses his navigation system for not picking up it's signal in the autopilot course. "But the engines are down and we're floating. We've got enough momentum that if I reset the course we'll reach a way station to refuel."

"Is this how you ended up at the way station where we met?" Minseok asks in a calm, but deadly voice. He's come behind Lu Han to study their situation himself, and Lu Han doesn't need to turn around to know the look on his face is something out of his own nightmares. Cold and murderous. 

"Well, I didn't hit an asteroid but it was because of engine failure," Lu Han is sheepish, cringing into the booth further out of fear of Minseok perhaps slaughtering him with his own bare hands. He hadn't wanted to be here in the first place, and now Lu Han's stranded them. "I set the course and my ship floated on stored power to the surface. It should be able to do that now."

"Should," Minseok says and Lu Han finally braves a glance to see him looking both slightly panicked and winter cold. "That should better be a will, Lu Han."

"It will," Lu Han says, stopping the squeak from his voice. He feels out of control now, situation slipping from his reach and the facade he carries falls at the knowledge that he's ruined everything with even more carelessness and crazy. 

He had once been proud of that crazy, but he's not so sure anymore. Not right now, not right here. 

"The heating systems?"

"Offline," Lu Han sighs. He can feel the frigid air settling in already as the ship cools down to save more power. "I have portable heat though, in my bunk it should be enough wit the door closed to-"

"I will be sleeping out here," Minseok says, and Lu Han wishes he wouldn't sound so empty. He'd just convinced Minseok to do something he never would have, had just secured a dream, and here it is, crumbling. "Until we reach a way station and you can transport me back home."

"We can still-" Lu Han stutters, taken aback by Minseok's 180 degree turn in personality, by his calm reluctance becoming resilience in every form. "We can still accomplish everything, just with a delay. This stuff happens."

"This stuff," Minseok says as he walks away from Lu Han and off the deck. "Proves your incompetence as a person."

Lu Han doesn't dare search for him, setting the course and retreating to his bunk to stare at the wall in regret. He's never regretted something before, and the feeling is weird to him, a mismatched feeling of uselessness deep in his veins. 

Yet Lu Han secretly wishes the trip to the station takes longer than expected, secretly wishes for more time with Minseok even in a state like this. After all, Minseok's been the first for a lot of feelings and maybe regret is just part of the mystifying package.

***   
Two days pass before Minseok speaks to Lu Han again, padding onto the deck with uncertainty in his step and a question in his eyes. Lu Han reacts embarrassingly, leaping up from his chair to see if Minseok is alright. He's been eating, Lu Han knows that, because he'd found the replicators just fine, but Lu Han has no idea where he's been sleeping or how he's been feeling, and he knows the ship is dead, cold, empty and boring. 

"Are you alright?" Lu Han asks with panic in his voice, and he tries not to show the hurt when Minseok steps out of his grip and away from him, instead moving to sit in one of the chairs near the pilot booths. 

"I'm fine," Minseok says airily, poking at the communication receiver with frustration in his movements. "Your communication is gone too you know."

"I hadn't noticed," Lu Han admits, scratching the back of his neck nervously while attempting to walk nonchalantly to wear Minseok has seated himself. "I rarely have anyone to communicate with outside of my employers."

"That sounds lonely," Minseok comments, and there's veiled concern in his voice before he snaps back to being cold, to being not really there at all. 

"It's normal," Lu Han says with a gentle laugh. "Nothing to worry over,"

"Not worrying," Minseok says hollowly, and Lu Han suddenly wants to leave the room, wants to hide in his part of the ship and not talk to Minseok ever again. He hadn't done this on purpose. "Just making an observation."

"It's not lonely," Lu Han insists, leaning on his broken door with one hand and frowning. "I'm used to it. I don't need much companionship."

"And yet you blew up my ship because you wanted to take a friend to the Aquarium Cloud," Minseok says in a scathing voice, and the way he puts it makes Lu Han sound pathetic, like a lonely space criminal who just wants love, attention. 

"I wanted _you_ to come with me," Lu Han pouts, childish and confused. "I don't have friends."

"And you thought I was your friend?" Minseok laughs, rising to his feet. "I came in here to test the chairs. I'll sleep here tonight."

"You were a person I grew attached to, and that hasn't happened before," Lu Han says quietly, before retreating backwards towards the hallway. "You can- it's cold out here too please come sleep in the bunks. I promise I won't-"

"I'm fine," Minseok insists, and the way he turns away from Lu Han says a lot more than just two words. 

***

 

"Come sit with me," Minseok asks him on the fourth day of space floating, and h'es beginning to wonder if his ship is just a piece of garbage and he's unlucky enough to have found his fate in being another flutter of trash within it. "I need to ask you some things."

It's the first time Minseok's spoken to him since he'd started sleeping on the bridge, and Lu Han is overcome with nerves as he settles quietly into a spot next to Minseok on the cool, metal floor. Minseok moves close, as if his knowledge of Lu Han's body heat is controlling his brain, and Lu Han wants to hope that maybe they'll be able to talk things out this time. 

Except Minseok says nothing, just stares at the wall with his shoulders brushing Lu Han's. Lu Han says nothing also, afraid to speak lest he somehow find himself dead and floating to a Fleet Prison instead. 

"I won't arrest you," Minseok finally speaks, and he shivers a bit as the words leave his mouth. Lu Han resists the urge to touch him, frustration in his thoughts because he knows Syntheids get colds easily, knows their skin is too thin for temperatures lower than _hot._ "But I dont understand you."

"That's the point," Lu Han says, arms placed delicately on his knees to avoid contact with Minseok, but he's surprised when Minseok pulls them away.

"I need warmth," Minseok tells him, and their eyes meet in a strange kind of trance for a heartbeat before he's scooting closer with purpose. "Nothing more. I'm just cold."

"I have a heater," Lu Han says weakly for what might be the hundredth time, but Minseok has fallen silent again. It feels nice, and Lu Han wonders if he'll be allowed this everyday until they're safe again, a little bit of something to know he hasn't chased his pretty Fleet Captain out of his sad life forever. 

"I know," Minseok says quietly. "I'm fine."

 

“I’m thinking.” Lu Han announces to the air around him, eyes drooping in the sleepiness that the cold of a dead ship causes when he’s not in his bunk surrounded by blankets. His voice has too much grandeur, a covering for the shivering in limbs. Its been too long of silence, of confusion, and he needs to speak, needs to get thoughts into the world around them. 

“Don’t hurt your head,” Minseok mumbles, words breaking off into a yawn. He’s still glaring, still angry and irritable like a caged cat, but he curls closer, warm breath fanning across Lu Han’s cheek and legs pressing against his. His skin is Syntheid soft, and its’ not quite cuddling, but it sends a seeping warmth down Lu Han’s spine and into the pit of his stomach. 

Maybe he’ll be forgiven after all. Eventually. 

“I don’t want you to hate me forever,” Lu Han says seriously, braving a glance sideways at Minseok’s frowning lips. “I just wanted to have fun and I missed you so I – we never did make it to the Aquarium Cloud and I thought when the engine comes back online at the next way station we could-“

“I’m not going anywhere with you after this,” Minseok says sharply, and the warm touch of his thigh against Lu Han disappears along with the hope that had bubbled up gentle in his belly. “I told you this yesterday and the day before. I want to go home.”

“I didn’t mean to get us stuck in-“

“Just like you didn’t mean to blow up my ship and kidnap me?”

“Well when you put it that way,” Lu Han says quietly, shying away from Minseok in guilt and confusion. “I just saw you and missed you and wanted you to stay so I impulsively-“

“Kidnapped me,” Minseok sighs, relaxing back into his place beside Lu Han, the red on his arms glowing softly for warmth. It’s comforting in the near dark of Lu Han’s deck. “That’s not what normal people do Lu Han.”

“I wasn’t really thinking.” Lu Han says in a lower voice, guilt coming to stay in the expanses of his mind where it usually has no place. “I Just got excited. Because it was you again and I wanted to see you, and you’re amazing but you wouldn’t have gone ‘yes Lu Han I wanted to see you again let’s hangout’ you’re the law and I’m the criminal. You would have arrested me and I had to act fast.”

“You shouldn’t be out breaking the law,” Minseok rubs his palms against his eyelids, and another yawn breaks to the surface. Lu Han wants to wrap him blankets and bring him back to his quarters, and also to quiz him on why his species yawns and if it’s the same as humans, but Minseok won’t pause his stubborn streak of refusing to do anything. 

“It’s how I make a living,” Lu Han yawns also, and the feeling is addictive as he slumps into tiredness. They’re nearing the way station, and should stop floating in a few more days when the gravity pulls the close, but he’s almost gotten used to Minseok on his ship. “You make a living, and so do I.”

“I make a moral living,” Minseok says in frustration. “It’s different.”

“What are morals,” Lu Han sighs, leaning back against the paneled wall to train his eyes not on Minseok but on a distant flash of light through the view window. A star maybe, light years away but reachable with Lu Han’s engines. “But something created by those in power to keep others in their own place?”

Minseok says nothing. 

“I only started smuggling so I could travel,” Lu Han continues when Minseok stays silent, unravelling the true simplicity of his story, one that’s much more tame, more normal than the one he’d spilled forth back at that other way station months ago. “I wanted to space travel forever and never have to settle on any planet, so I found a job that give me the funds and freedom nothing else ever could.”

“No dead mothers or poor planets?” Minseok mutters in wonder, sounding defeated again, like he’s not surprised Lu Han isn’t anywhere near who he said he was.

“Oh my mother is dead,” Lu Han says with a hollow laugh. “And my planet is depleted of resources. But I was long gone off the surface before either occurred.”

“Are all humans like you?” Minseok inquires, and Lu Han’s almost forgotten, when with the tentacles and the texture and the red designs, that Minseok isn’t human. 

“Like me?” Lu Han echoes, and he doesn’t quite understand because he’s always been the different one. 

“strange and immoral and full of lies,” Minseok says in a statis voice, and something in his words jolts Lu Han, because that description doesn’t make him sound that different from all of humanity at all. 

“I don’t lie as much as you think,” Lu Han pauses and frowns. “It’s not natural to me, but with this job you have to. I have to protect myself.”

“I don’t get it,” Minseok says, eyes following lu han’s to pinpoint on the same distant star. “But I guess we’re very different.”

“Have you ever gone undercover?” Lu Han asks, stretching out the kinks in his muscles in preparation for sleep. “You had to lie then, to protect yourself.”

“That was for a good cause though,” Minseok argues back, and Lu Han wonders if Minseok is just afraid that they won’t be that different after all.

“And me wanting the life I could never have back home isn’t a good cause? I don’t steal from the poor Minseok,” Lu Han says evenly. “I take from giant space corporations who will never miss the cargo aside from the moral issues its disappearance causes. I trade it with smugglers who sell the goods to those that need them in Quadrants where its’ nearly impossible. I’d call that a good cause.”

Minseok opens and closes his mouth, looking increasingly bothered. 

“Most Fleet Hunters don’t even join to support justice and capture dangerous criminals,” Lu Han continues, spurred on by some kind of emotion he can’t register, filled with the need to make Minseok _understand_. “They join for the adrenaline rush and the girls and the boys and the chase and the big guns and the social status and the gloating privileges. They don’t care about the stories or the lives of those they lock away forever at Fleet Prison for petty theft.”

“I don’t care for any of that stuff,” Minseok scrunches up his nose. “I don’t need big guns or social status or”

“Then why are you space cop?” Lu Han says, Earth slang slipping from his tongue in a moment of over tiredness, of carelessness. 

“My father was a Fleet Captain,” Minseok replies, standing up at the same times Lu Han does, and Lu Han wonders at the accidental unison as they stretch. “It made sense for me to become one also.

“How boring,” Lu Han scoffs, walking towards his sad, melted door and turning back to Minseok with a fake, sly smile. “Are you sure you don’t enjoy being called _Captain_ and having eager young boys and girls fawn over you?”

“I only enjoyed that when you did it actually,” Minseok admits in a sudden moment of pure honesty, and Lu Han is sure he can see a flush rising up his marking from his shoulders to his eyes. “You had a way with words.”

“Because I like to notice the things people don’t,” Lu Han grins, though he’s sleepy, about to fall over with the last of his energy depleted by emotion. “Also I really wanted to sleep with you.”

Lu Han pauses to glance at the distant star again, before glancing to Minseok’s small, unsure figure. He doesn’t want to tell him that he’s not sure if they’re actually floating to a way station or not, that’s not sure if this engine failure is actually fixable. 

“You’ll be a lot warmer if you come sleep in my bunk you know.”

“I’m fine,” Minseok insists, curling up in a chair with his blazer across his chest, and Lu Han pretends not to notice the shiver that wracks his body. 

“If you say so.”

***

Lu Han wakes up to a weight on his chest.

It;s confusing at first, eyes sleepily blinking open and warmth stronger than usual. He briefly thinks that the heat has come back on, but when he moves to sit up in wonder, he's greeted with the weight of Minseok, arms clutching his own under his thick blankets, and soft chest pressed to his own. 

Lu Han swears his heart stops. 

"Don't move," Minseok commands in a tired voice, and it takes Lu Han a second longer to realize Minseok isn't wearing any clothes, has stripped completely bare to seep the warmth of Lu Han and his bunk directly into the glowing markings on his skin that act as receptors of the world. "You'll take away the warmth."

"Uh," is all Lu Han can say, and it's not like him, sudden bashfulness at the proximity of another person, but this is the same Minseok who hours earlier had been harsh towards him, who for days has refused to be in his presence despite the warmth he'd given him prior to this meeting. 

"I couldn't do it anymore," Minseok mutters, and his limbs -- no, those _aren't his limbs_ \-- spread across Lu Han's thighs to hold him in place, thick and warm and just as soft as the rest of his skin. "It's so fucking cold."

"You're stubborn," Lu Han comments, but he listens to Minseok and stays still, trying not to twitch when a tentacles wraps around his waist to pull him that much closer. 

"I am," Minseok admits, pushing himself up a bit on Minseok's chest with a defeated frown. "But I thought a lot about our conversation, and I know you didn't mean to get us stranded, and I know that your lifestyle isn't meant to be malicious."

"Thank you." Lu Han says awkwardly, breathing nowhere near even as Minseok shifts to get comfortable. "Are you - it's okay?"

"Just go back to sleep," Minseok mumbles before collapsing back into Lu Han's stiff arms. "I don't want to think about this."

Lu Han thinks it’s impossible not to think about it, especially the way his body shivers from every moment, remembering the first night on the ship when Minseok had been decently happy with him, remembering that night back at the way station when they’d discovered each other for the first time, both mentally and sexually.   
“I’m sorry,” Lu Han speaks out loud in a shaky, tired voice. But Minseok isn’t awake to hear it. 

***

"Breaking atmosphere in seven galactic units. Ship will seek landing in four rotations of Planet 756 around its patron star."

Lu Han awakes to his computer whirring back to life, a long waited announcement that safety is near, and that Minseok will be free from his filthy, criminalistic hands. He shakes Minseok's sleeping form awake with vigor, ignoring the complaints to untangle himself and run to the bridge, clothes forgotten and blanket wrapped around his shoulders for warmth. 

And there it is, the curve of the planet taking up most of his view, atmosphere a milky green colour that he can't quite see through at this distance. He can hear Minseok behind him and doesn't dare turn around, nerves creeping up more so now that Minseok appears to be more okay with him, now that they're nearly ready to depart. 

Because floating takes a long time but warp speed will have Minseok home in minutes, and Lu Han knows he'll never see him again, knows that Minseok's musing of "isn't that lonely?" will become more of a reality seeing the most beautiful person in his world step out of frame once again. 

_don't be so dramatic_ His inner voice tells him, scolds him. _You'll find another pretty Syntheid with magical tentacles one day. You'll be fine._

Lu Han scowls, but drops it as he turns to face Minseok, finding him in Lu Han's other blanket, the tips of his tentacles dangerously poking out from beneath. He's not fully awake yet, Lu Han realizes, still swollen from sleep with a dullness to his markings and a tired hoodedness to his eyes. 

"We'll be at the way station soon," Lu Han tells him immediately, stepping aside to show Minseok the proof, to show him the set coordinates and the computer's message. He tries to keep the bitterness from his tone as Minseok sighs in relief and happiness. 

"I'm glad," Minseok breathes out, stepping too close to Lu Han as he moves to get a better look. "I'm so cold."

"You didn't actually forgive me did you," Lu Han says with the regret of the truth. "You just wanted to be warm."

"I wanted you to be warm also," Minseok says and he turns to Lu Han with a rare smile, one Lu Han hasn't seen since they first met and Minseok had high hopes for him. "I'm not going to say I overreacted, because I didn't. You're awful and you blew up my ship and got us stranded in space."

"I'll see to it that you're at Fleet Headquarters as soon as possible," Lu Han says quietly, shoulders drooping and eyes trained on the floor. "I apologize, I-"

"That won't be necessary," Minseok interrupts him with a conspiratorial smile, and the red marks on his cheeks flash like ruby lightning, entrancing and distracting. "I'm coming with you."

"For how long?" Lu Han gapes, barely withholding the excitement he feels at Minseok's words, though confusion and guilt once again overwhelm his thoughts. "But- I don't deserve that-"

"I deserve it," Minseok tells him with a far away secrecy in his gaze. "I thought a lot about you asking why I became a Fleet Captain and realized how boring it really was, and how boring my life had gotten doing it. I don't think I need to go back at all."

"So you'll come to the Aquarium Cloud?" Lu Han stutters out, and he suddenly needs to sit down from shock, legs wobbling beneath him and heart fluttering in near panic. 

"We have a facility to rob first," Minseok says, flicking his badge onto Lu Han's lap. "And I have us an all access pass."

"Who are you?" Lu Han asks, getting nervous now because he's never seen hot and cold behaviour this bad unless its' from himself, impulsive making Minseok's pretty eyes look dangerous in the low light of the deck. 

"I think the cold impaired my sanity," Minseok says in a serious tone, but his eyes, large and glittering, say something else, alive with the kind of laughter only space can bring. "And it's been a while since I stayed at way station."

"Really?" Lu Han asks curiously, heart still skittering and mind still on pause. "When?"

"I got stranded on a desert planet," Minseok shrugs, settling down next to Lu Han with his legs crossed over each other, and the position makes Lu Han all too aware of what's in between those legs. His brain starts again, catching up with the moment though slowly, as if in suspended time. "And I got lost and a pretty boy helped me find a hotel room."

"That was really the last time?" Lu Han says in shock. He's forgotten that most people have better places to stay, that most people return to sleek, Fleet made bases, officers and civilians alike. 

"It was," Minseok breathes out a slow breath, as if relaxing to the very nature of his new life quickly. "I knew who that pretty boy was too. His face is all over our records. The most notorious space pirate in Andromeda. I could have arrested him right then. it's silly now, looking back that even when I purposely took on a mission when I heard his name I still tried to stick to my fragile morality for an extra few days."

"You knew I lied?" Lu Han's brain has paused again, and is reeling backwards now. He clutches his thighs with his fingers. 

"I did," Minseok laughs, and he's giving Lu Han the kind of mischievous look he had back when they'd first met, the one that told Lu Han that this Fleet Hunter had a little bit of something else in his blood. "But the space pirate also had another reputation besides smuggling illegal goods across the galaxy and outflying the best Fleet Captains. He slept with everyone. Of any species, as long as they were pretty."

"Oh," Lu Han breaks out into a slow grin, some of his cockiness returning with a swish of his hand as he realizes where this story was going. "I didn't win you over it was a joint effort."

"I wasn't expecting feelings," Minseok continues. "From either side. But I found myself missing the strange, pretty human space pirate as i went about my daily life. So I jumped at the chance to see him again, and it was difficult you know, keeping my composure when he looked so beautiful on my ship's screen."

Lu Han resists the urge to hairflip, and then resists the urge to careen forwards when Minseok shudders in the cold of his still dead ship. 

"But then," Minseok says, and he scowls now, crossing his arms over his chest. "He blows up my fucking ship, and tells me we're going to see goddamn _space fish_. And I'm pissed yes, but it's so _Lu Han_ , so much every bit of both your reputation and the stories you told back at the hotel, that I wasn't angry even, I was ready to go along with your wild life for a taste of something I'd always wanted."

"And then you realized that my life isn't always glory and action and adventure," Lu Han says with a new understanding, a new kind of respect for Minseok. He's beginning to realize what makes him tick, even though they still technically barely know each other, even though his life feels like it's suddenly just beginning. "Because being a space pirate often involves days in the freezing cold of a dark, lonely, ship."

"Smugglers usually work in crews," Minseok points out, attaching to Lu Han's last sullen words. "You don't."

"Like I said before," Lu Han says with a lightness to his tone, pulling his chair closer to Minseok's to grab his hands, to ease the cold that shivers through his small frame. "I've always been the different one."

"I've always been the boring one," Minseok says, and his admittance is bitter, tongue laced with sharpness as he says the words. "Straight laced and perfect at my job, at school, at being a son."

"We'll have to change that won't we." Lu Han says in a voice that's too soft even for him. 

"We will." Minseok agrees, falling silent. An abrupt end to an abrupt beginning, Lu Han thinks. They're first rocky adventure together in space. 

***

It's only later, four tentacles deep and his face buried in Minseok's shoulder, the dinginess of a way station hotel room surrounding them like a blanket of familiarity, that Lu Han remembers. He pauses his movements, gasping at each drag of Minseok's tentacles inside him, against each other, and it's nearly impossible to get words out with the friction, with Minseok's hands burning holes into his hips. 

"Minseok," He stutters, falling onto his back with Minseok pretty above him, a sight he never wants to get rid of from his vision. "Minseok do you really not want to see space fish?"

"What," Minseok asks, not slowing down as each tentacle fucks in and out like a beacon of heat and fire. Lu Han moans, taking a deep, shuddering breath before he's momentarily distracted by the glow of Minseok's markings, pretty red all over his body. 

"I still- ah oh my god - want to see the Aquarium Clou-" His words are cut off by Minseok's mouth on his own, hot and wet while searing fingers dance up his sides and across his nipples to distract him. Minseok's free tentacle grips Lu Han's waist to slam him back onto each one. 

"Shut up," Minseok says once he breaks away from their sloppy kisses, saying nothing more as he buries his nose in Lu Han's collarbone. 

"I'll take that as a yes," Lu Han breathes, back arching off the bed as a blissful smile overtakes him, overwhelmed by the shaking of his thighs as he comes, numbed by the stretch of too much and yet not enough. 

Minseok is the prettiest thing Lu Han’s ever stolen from the Fleet, and he doesn't think he wants to give this one back.


End file.
